Chaperone for field trip

[Anonymous]

I once chaperoned the craziest group of kids. They were beasts jumping all over the place and separating every which direction. I ignored my child the entire time and expected him to step up and help out with keeping an eye on the other unruly kids. Mind you these were 4th graders so they are old enough to know better. It was so stressful because at one point, I had to call the teacher to tell her that two kids ran off in different directions and I was only able to chase after one and lost the other. Makes me wonder if their parents know how crazy their kids are -- these are like the "well liked" boys in the class who think they are too cool to follow the rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year, I chaperoned 2 kids and 1 is my own. I lost the other kid because he ran away without letting me know. Both kids were excited and hyperactive, and I couldn't have them stay together. I had to dump my own kid and went out crazy runnin to look for him in an open busy field. Luckily, I found him somewhere 20 min after. I was scared and I thought I was screwed.

??? That's highly unusual. Usually there are a bunch of adults and everyone sticks together in the lower grades. Did no one see you? Where you only assigned two because they knew both of them were a handful?

I really hope you notified the teacher, because if the other child has trouble in school, and is a flight risk, it absolutely needs to be documented so they can be better monitored for the next field trip, and also so that the teacher can make the case for extra services and gently hint to the parents that their kid needs to be evaluated by a professional (translation: be put on meds). I have a child with inattentive ADHD, I've chaperoned lots of hyperactive kids, and the elementary stage is the worse, because it's when parents are not fully accepting of their child's need for meds. In middle school, they've accepted it and their kids behave better in school and on field trips.

[Anonymous]

I chaperoned a trip to the science ctr last spring. I had my kid and 2 of her best friends. It wasn’t hard to keep them together. The teachers set you up for success, they don’t want kids getting lost either. OP not sure why you think you can’t “ manage” 3-5 kids for a few hours. The teacher manages a whole class.

[Anonymous]

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/0/1087463.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year, I chaperoned 2 kids and 1 is my own. I lost the other kid because he ran away without letting me know. Both kids were excited and hyperactive, and I couldn't have them stay together. I had to dump my own kid and went out crazy runnin to look for him in an open busy field. Luckily, I found him somewhere 20 min after. I was scared and I thought I was screwed.

??? That's highly unusual. Usually there are a bunch of adults and everyone sticks together in the lower grades. Did no one see you? Where you only assigned two because they knew both of them were a handful?

I really hope you notified the teacher, because if the other child has trouble in school, and is a flight risk, it absolutely needs to be documented so they can be better monitored for the next field trip, and also so that the teacher can make the case for extra services and gently hint to the parents that their kid needs to be evaluated by a professional (translation: be put on meds). I have a child with inattentive ADHD, I've chaperoned lots of hyperactive kids, and the elementary stage is the worse, because it's when parents are not fully accepting of their child's need for meds. In middle school, they've accepted it and their kids behave better in school and on field trips.

Pp here. I did not notify teacher because I didn't want drama. My kid is handful, and I did not realize I was assigned another handful kid. Maybe that was the reason I was the only pareny given 2 kids.

To answer another pp question, I was looking at both of them but there were many exits and hiding spaces because they were jumping arounf & playing in piles of hay piles in a half enclosed area. There were many kids and I got distracted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year, I chaperoned 2 kids and 1 is my own. I lost the other kid because he ran away without letting me know. Both kids were excited and hyperactive, and I couldn't have them stay together. I had to dump my own kid and went out crazy runnin to look for him in an open busy field. Luckily, I found him somewhere 20 min after. I was scared and I thought I was screwed.

??? That's highly unusual. Usually there are a bunch of adults and everyone sticks together in the lower grades. Did no one see you? Where you only assigned two because they knew both of them were a handful?

I really hope you notified the teacher, because if the other child has trouble in school, and is a flight risk, it absolutely needs to be documented so they can be better monitored for the next field trip, and also so that the teacher can make the case for extra services and gently hint to the parents that their kid needs to be evaluated by a professional (translation: be put on meds). I have a child with inattentive ADHD, I've chaperoned lots of hyperactive kids, and the elementary stage is the worse, because it's when parents are not fully accepting of their child's need for meds. In middle school, they've accepted it and their kids behave better in school and on field trips.

Pp here. I did not notify teacher because I didn't want drama. My kid is handful, and I did not realize I was assigned another handful kid. Maybe that was the reason I was the only pareny given 2 kids.

To answer another pp question, I was looking at both of them but there were many exits and hiding spaces because they were jumping arounf & playing in piles of hay piles in a half enclosed area. There were many kids and I got distracted.

Woah. I’d say you didn’t screw up by losing a kid (he bolted), but you did, big time, by not notifying the teacher. 20 mins is a long time to be lost. Glad it was a good outcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have chaperoned a lot of field trips as a SAHM. I was available for ALL field trips and I loved the trips. It is one of the most enjoyable things to do as a parent in ES. Of course, all of this was some years ago and pre-COVID but I do not think things would have changed all that much.

No, you are not carrying the lunch boxes of the children. Usually, it is left in the tour bus. However, if you think that you might be asked to carry their lunch, then carry an empty tote bag, just in case.

Tips- dress in layers for the weather. Wear comfortable shoes. Take sunglasses, wear sunscreen. Take your water bottle. Take your lunch and snacks. Invariably, there will be a kid or two who will forget their lunch or have a large appetite. I used to pack extras, individually wrapped no-fuss cheese sandwiches, some tangerines, some goldfish packs, some small water bottles.

I carried with me a backpack which included my wallet, fully charged smart phone, tissues, wet wipes, hand sanitizer and name labels with my cell phone number. I would fix the name label with my phone number on the shirt of each of my charges, so that if they somehow manage to get lost, someone would call my cellphone. Also, you should have an idea of if any of the kids have a food allergy etc.

The one way for the children to listen to you and move like a pack is to have a buddy system for very small kids. I also took a lot of pictures of the children and kept posting it to their parents. (In those days, chaperones got the parent cell phone numbers), Field trips require very little effort. Their teachers are with them. You are just keeping track of very small number of kids under your charge. The teachers provide the lead and all you do is keep an eye on the kids. When they are back in the bus, make sure that your charges are sitting together. You can give them the wetwipes to wipe their hands, hand sanitizer etc. And generally instruct them to have their snacks etc. Take a few pictures. Ask them to make funny faces etc, so that you can send some cute pictures to their parents.

We had a wonderful teacher in DS's 1st grade who insisted that the kids had one snack on the way to the field trip destination. It prevented a lot of cranky behavior because some kids are coming to the school hungry and then they get very exhausted.

Sometimes the parents also send $$ for the kids to buy something from the gift shop. I never liked that because sometimes you had kids who would lose the money, or have more or less money to buy stuff. I hope your fieldtrip does not have that problem.

If you are going to a farm kind of place or to the pumpkin patch - carry some plastic bags with you. Have a marker with you so that you can write the kids name on their pumpkin and on the plastic bag. Tell the kids that their pumpkin should fit into the bag and they have to carry it. Some of the kids end up selecting pumpkin which is half their size. You must set expectations.

But really, the trips are so easy-peasy, and you get a chance to take so many pictures of your kid and their friends. Well worth it.

Make sure that the kids go to the bathroom at the school before they go on the fieldtrip. This will prevent a lot of angst.